As most of our regular readers know, we at AAC are not fans of twin rudders for a whole bunch of reasons, including complexity, vulnerability to damage and because they can’t be used in conjunction with prop wash to manoeuvre a boat, thereby making a bow thruster pretty much required for safe docking.
But now another dangerous down side of twin rudders has been highlighted by a tragic fatality when a crew member fell overboard and was most likely immediately hit by one of the twin rudders, I’m guessing the windward one, which on the boat in question would have been positioned to be the scythe of the grim reaper when the boat was well heeled.
And this may not be the first time a twin rudder has killed. A few years ago I was talking to a very experienced sailing pro who had skippered one of the Clipper boats in the round-the-world race, and he was convinced that one of the fatalities during another running of that race was the result of a rudder strike during the recovery attempt after a crew member fell overboard.
Do we know for sure that twin rudders were the implement of death in these cases? No. But one look at the boats in question makes it seem possible, or even likely.
So putting aside my opinion against twin-rudder boats, what’s the takeaway?
I think if we have a twin-rudder boat:
- We need to be doubly sure we have a good crew overboard (COB) prevention system.
- Said system should use inboard jacklines and shorter tethers to make as sure as possible that a crew can’t be dragged, since that might result in being repeatedly smashed into the windward rudder.
- The boats COB recovery procedures should take into account the dangers of a rudder strike.
- I’m thinking that the plan should be to stop the boat well clear of the COB and then use a heaving line to make the connection and haul them in to a safe position.
- The other, and perhaps even better alternative is the LifeSling pickup.
- On no account should we try to come alongside the person in the water as often advocated for.
- Some of the above probably applies to boats like those from Boréal that have twin dagger boards aft, although the good thing about that configuration is that it’s typically only the leeward board that’s down when heeled sailing to windward, and the boards could be retracted before a COB recovery attempt.
And if we are considering buying a twin-rudder boat, this is another important issue to think about before pulling the trigger.
Hi John
the move towards ultra thin rudders with hight tech/high strength structural innards won’t help either!
The daggerboards on the Boreal’s are likely to break first, as they are not anything like as robust, with no internal reinforcement. Many owners carry a spare as a result.
Best wishes
Colin
Scary observation John,
It certainly takes me back to my inshore keelboat racing days. Twin rudders were not a thing, but nor were harnesses, tethers or even life-jackets common, for fully crewed in inshore races. Wouldn’t inshore races be just as dangerous (wrt rudder strike) as offshore races, where such safety measures could be expected and be more practicable?
With extreme beam carried way aft common in newer racing boats, their geometry makes any fall to windward or leeward vulnerable to rudder strike from their (almost) obligatory twin rudders. And I just can’t see inshore crews using tethers when short tacking, or dousing a kite and pole approaching a mark.
And modern racing hulls are designed to surf or even plane downwind, making probable rudder impact speeds significantly higher. The crew in the linked article was unfortunate to be struck on the head, but any bone fracture, or substantial impact causing external or internal bleeding will make any recovery an order or so less likely.
It will be interesting to see what response there is from World Sailing and national yachting bodies from this incident. I would think compulsory safety helmets and self-inflating lifejackets would be a starting place. Not sure how crew tethers would ever work for inshore fully crewed racing.
Makes you think.
Hi Rob,
I came at it from the point of us cruisers, but that’s a really good point about racers who definitely won’t be wearing any COB prevention gear. Heck, when sailing on the bay in relatively warn and smooth water with crew I don’t wear a tether, so if our J/109 were a twin rudder boat, what then?
And your point about very wide stern boats is well made too. It would seem to be that if we fall in off say the foredeck a rudder strike becomes even more likely with this hull shape.
The tragic death of Anna Konontchouk in the Aegean 600 was a horrible accident and a reminder to all sailors, cruisers and racers, that our “sport” is not risk free.
I owned an Elan450 for 12 years which I sailed over 27,000nm. I can think of a number of occasions on which I could have/did come close to death but none involved being hit by the windward rudder. My closest “near death” experience was in an inshore race and being keel hauled with a random sheet around my ankle. I don’t believe that this experience warrants a conversation about not having keels.
Apparently, and I haven’t read a detailed report of the accident, neither crew were wearing tethers. Certainly if they were they were much too long. I fully agree with the comments about the need for a “robust” COB procedure but even more a need for “double short tether” procedures. It’s a pain but with the speeds of modern yachts – not just racers, we hit 13kn today – a long tether is a guaranteed certificate to drowning.
Twin rudders are great!
Hi John,
While I agree that twin rudders have a place on planing high performance keel boats that rely on sailing up wind at high heal angles to reduce wetted surface (example, open 40), I can’t agree that twin rudders are generally a good idea. On cruising boats they are, in my view, generally a bug, not a feature.
And further, I can’t understand how anyone could look at say this photo of the Elan 450:https://www.yachtingworld.com/reviews/boat-tests/elan-450-review-from-the-archive
and not see that the windward rudder could pose a danger to anyone falling overboard with the boat healed, as well as a danger when trying to pick up a person in the water so that, at the very least, the crew should be aware of said danger and modify their procedures accordingly.
I would also say your keel metaphor does not work for me since the keel haul modality would be so much less likely than simply falling overboard or by being hit by the rudder in a pickup situation.
Anyway, very glad to hear you survived it!
Hi John,
I’ve raced on many high speed twin rudder monohulls and already the first one I took note of the slicer I’d encounter if I fell. Meaning I decided to not risk that, even in short course racing with a trailing RIB. I really think the danger is predominantly getting hit immediately after falling in at high speed, mostly not the recovery. I don’t think a helmet will increase safety significantly, but I don’t know that, of course. If I were to have a monohull cruiser with twin rudders, (very unlikely!) they would be kick up rudders, for extremely shallow draft. I can’t see another reason for it on a cruiser.
Since I’m a multihull fanatic, 🙂 I must mention that all cats and most fast tris have twin rudders too. Cruising cats are the relevant ones in this context. Some of the time, some of them can reach higher speed than twin rudder cruising monohulls. Still, I don’t know if the risk is the same.
Falling off a cruising cat demands extreme recklessness, and the windward rudder is vertical, fully immersed, does not protrude outwards and lifted to the surface. I still wouldn’t disregard the danger.
Hi Stein,
My thinking would be that the risk on a cruising cat is very low since they don’t lift the weather hull much, and certainly don’t fly it, or if they do the crew have bigger problems to deal with!
As to pick up risk, I think that depends on the monohull. The guy I talked to is very experienced and had real concerns about the Humpreys designed Clipper boats and was absolutely convinced that a rudder strike during pick up had contributed to a fatality. Of course we will never know for sure, but if I was in charge of a monohull with twin rudders well outboard I would certainly be factoring that into my COB recovery protocols.
Hi John,
Thanks for calling attention to these fatalities. Every fatality at sea is a terrible tragedy.
Are you aware of how much this is happening? There are many, many twin-rudder sailboats traveling the sea now. Have you seen any statistics on how common injuries or fatalities are from MOB and strike from the windward rudder?
Thanks,
Geoff
Hi Geoff,
In a word, no. The problem is that there is little tracking of any kind of recreational vessel accidents at the national level, and certainly no international coordination of the tracking of fatality stats. Therefore we in the recreational marine world are left to use our own common sense to decide what the level of risk for a given “feature” is and then it’s up to each of us to decide which trade offs we will accept, and which are unacceptable.
My own thinking is that one glance at a photo of many twin rudder boats shows that this risk is very real, and that’s not a risk I would be willing to take in exchange for little or no benefit, and many drawbacks, on a cruising boat.
If, on the other hand, I wanted to race Open 40s—wave a magic wand and make me 40 years younger and I’m there—I would accept the risk of twin rudders because that sort of planing boat requires them to sail well.
I’m with you, John. It’s a real shame that there’s no data available on a nationwide or worldwide level. We’re basically left up to stories and our own evaluation of the risks involved. Again, a shame.
Hi Geoff
Hum, actually I’m not sure that the lack of data collection is necessarily a bad thing. My thinking is that that sort of official interest also tends to come bundled with a lot of regulation or even legislation and the thought of law makers, or bureaucrats, trying to control recreational offshore sailing would worry me.
To me offshore cruising is one of the last experiences available where each of us takes full personal responsibility for risk management and I would hate to see that change.
Hi John,
Agree completely with the worry about letting regulation and bureaucrats get a toe in the door and agree completely about recreational offshore sailing being one of the last areas where the skipper bears full responsibility for risk management: as it should be.
The area where I see this responsibility edging toward inviting outside oversight and involvement is the increase (in my observation as there is no data) in the frequency in which Search and Rescue services are called out to help vessels which were poorly prepared and/or skipper and crew who were inexperienced and/or using poor judgment.
Every SAR call-out, even the most benign, holds some danger to the SAR crew and it would be particularly tragic to have a crew injury or death occur on a call-out to a boat which was poorly prepared or where the skipper used poor judgment.
I believe our “deal” (if you will) as recreational sailors with SAR services is that we go to sea with boats that are well prepared to meet the possible bad conditions for the cruising area chosen and with skipper/crew experienced to deal with those occasional difficult conditions and to deal with the occasional repairs that cruising boats always face. So, following that, a search and rescue call-out will be for bad luck and not for poor preparation.
And, following the above, to maintain our “deal” as recreational sailors with SAR services, I would suggest there is a need to better educate ourselves on safe and best practices and to “police” ourselves in some way when we hear or see problematic practices. In this way, we keep up our end of the “deal” and make less likely any outside oversight.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy